Luminosity Plot

RHIC integrated luminosity in units inverse micro barns as a function of
days in Run7 for the four interaction regions together with our least
optimistic predictions (dark blue dots and line) and our most optimistic predictions
(grey dots and line). The least optimistic predictions are based on an extrapolation
of our most successful week in Run 4, the most optimistic scenario is based on a beta*
value of 0.9 m, 111 bunches, 1.1e9 ions/bunch and an average time at store of 60%.
The luminosity numbers are corrected for accidental coincidences in the ZDCs.
- Angelika Drees, RHIC Run Coordinator.

Welcome to RHIC News

We hope that this
web publication will in some small measure reflect the
excitement of the RHIC and AGS program at Brookhaven, as
explained by some of the people who are doing the experiments,
analyzing the data, and writing the papers.

Associate
Laboratory Director for Nuclear and Particle Physics by Sam
Aronson
The following announcement was made to all employees on May 14,
2007: I am pleased to announce that, after an extensive search
and interview process, Steve Vigdor has agreed to join the
Laboratory as our next Associate Laboratory Director for Nuclear
and Particle Physics. Steve is presently at Indiana University,
where he formerly was Chair and presently is Chair-elect for the
Physics Department. More...

The
Physics of RHIC II By Jamie Nagle
Nuclear physics in the United States has become a very broad
scientific enterprise with many fascinating, cutting edge
research aspects trying to answer some of the most important
questions in science. Approximately every five years the
Department of Energy and National Science Foundation charges the
Nuclear Science Advisory Committee (NSAC) to "conduct a new
study of the opportunities and priorities for United States
nuclear physics research and recommend a long range plan that
will provide a framework for coordinated advancement of the
Nation's nuclear science research programs over the next
decade."
More...

Working
for you: The RHIC & AGS Users' Center and Executive Committee
by Brant Johnson
The goal of RHIC news is to "cover the breadth of the efforts at
RHIC, from physics results to machine and detector development."
Appropriately, most of the contributed articles are about
significant accomplishments and future plans, but here I write
about continuing efforts to improve our working and living
conditions. More...

Cybersecurity
Advisory Council by Martin Purschke
Many in the RHIC/AGS community know me from my work in PHENIX.
Since the beginning of 2007, I have been the chairman of BNL's
Cyber Security Advisory Council (CSAC). The mission of the
council, which consists of about 25 members from ITD, the
departments, and larger groups, is to work with and advise ITD
and ensure that new rules and other changes have no adverse
impact on our scientific work. I wanted to fill you in on what
has been going on in this arena lately. More...

UEC
Cybersecurity Survey by George
Stephans
In response to cyber security issues, BNL management held a
lab-wide security stand-down on October 5, 2006. As input to the
ongoing process of evaluating the cyber security situation, the
RHIC Users Executive Committee surveyed BNL users a few weeks
later to learn their opinions on this important topic. The
results, summarized below, were presented and discussed in a
series of meetings with lab management late in 2006. As a result
of those meetings, adjustments were made in the continuing
process of designing and implementing changes in cyber security
requirements and procedures. More...

The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven National
Laboratory is a world-class scientific research facility primarily
funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. Hundreds
of physicists from around the world use RHIC to study what the
universe may have looked like in the first few moments after its
creation. What physicists learn from these collisions may help us
understand more about why the physical world works the way it does,
from the smallest subatomic particles, to the largest stars.